Okay, here’s my review. I didn’t expect to enjoy a Kristen Wiig hosted episode as much as I did (especially since the did the exact same recurring characters that she did the last time she hosted an episode live in studio four years ago) but there were plenty of signs in this episode that SNL would make the right changes for the better in the coming year. I guess writing the whole show in a way that makes it feel like a throwback to an era when Kristen Wiig was on the show much more frequently may have felt necessary to balance things out for fans who were complacent about SNLs’ more troubling habits of recent years and didn’t care to see SNL finally utilize its’ current cast they way they should and gradually rely less on outside cameos. Speaking of which, this episode made possibly the best use of Andrew and Lauren yet at this point. Punkie still may have to establish herself in some ways, but still the show is making progress. Seems like the only cast members who were completely shut out of the show were the ones who weren’t even in the building. Aidy is still filming “Shrill” and Cecily was nowhere to be seen (wherever she is I hope she’s doing well). Kate popped up early in the show and seemingly disappeared. I guess since nobody even dropped any hints that this COULD be their last show everyone’s still gonna be here until the end of this season at least. Kate may return for the last few shows in April/May after she finishes her shoot in New Zealand? Anyway, let’s break it down, shall we?
Pence Takes The Shot - Well, anyway you look at it this cold open was a good sign for SNL in the years to come. In fact, this barely even felt like a typical Trump era cold open (or something that would be a cold open in any era) until Maya showed up. Even her cameo is warranted tonight for non-Kamala related reasons given her history with tonights’ host. Speaking of warranted (and unwarranted) cameos, Carrey’s announcement that he would be stepping down from the role of President Elect Joe Biden was perhaps the thing that intrigued me the most about tonight’s episode. I wasn’t sure we would even get to see a new take on Biden as soon as tonight (I had heard a rumor that Carrey was asked to come back this week but declined and this sketch seemed like it could have been written with him in mind) as I’m sure even they weren’t sure how far ahead they could plan right now. Much like the rest of you, I’m very pleased to see that they chose to give the role to Alex Moffat. It’s about time SNL started using their established cast for prominent roles like this and Moffat has certainly been on the show long enough and put in enough work that he’s earned this. His Biden impression may not seem like much at first, but he definitely seems more solid and grounded than Carrey’s so far. Still, he may need some extra time to develop his impression seeing as this may have been the first time she show has had to put their “Biden Plan B” into action. Bennett may have turned in his strongest performance yet as Pence (getting past all the “closeted homophobe” jokes of course). Maybe he relished finally getting to drop this role as much as Baldwin did his? Good to see Kenan return as Dr. Ben Carson as well. Also, rewatching on YouTube it’s nice to see this one clocked in at just under seven minutes. Honestly, the only real negative thing I can say about this cold open was that Kates’ Rudy felt too tacked on unnecessarily. A-
Monologue - Given that all of this season's previous monologues were all solo, host-only-on-stage affairs and that Kristen's two previous ones were sprawling musical affairs involving the entire cast, I was genuinely curious how they'd pull this one off. Then again, Pete and Timothee broke the streak of cast members staying off stage for the monologue and Kristen's Thanksgiving '16 monologue stayed on stage so this could've gone either way. Appropriately, we ended up getting Kristen's lowest key monologue with only Maya and Kate joining her on stage. Unfortunately, this didn't quite go anywhere but it was fine. I enjoyed it enough for what it was. Typical low level randomness we've come to expect from non-character Wiig pieces. C-
Secret Word X - Well, the best things about this sketch were seeing Kenan reprise his Grant Choad character (apparently as an impersonation of Haders' game show host character from these) and seeing Kate play another ennui riddled European woman. Besides that and the "(t)Rimming The Tree" and "mumbai/dad bye" jokes, there wasn't much to this beyond the usual Secret Word shtick/formula. Still, I liked this more than some of the earlier Secret Words we saw from Wiigs’ peak overuse era on the show simply because this is one of the ones that felt much sharper and tighter than usual. Also, Kenans’ appearance here really cemented in my mind that he and Chris were able to make it back from their shoot as early as possible in the week. C-
Christmas Morning - At first this felt like a throwback to any unspecified 1990-2019 time period (until Kyle mentioned Cameo). Then, Kristen got her first of several "robe" lines out and it became more and more clear that this was written in a similar vein to the Fifty Shades Of Grey Mothers' Day ad from Wiigs' third to last episode as a cast member. Other than that, it just felt like a pile of “underappreciated mom/put upon wife” jokes that we’ve seen before in comedy more in places other than SNL. I wanted to like it a bit more but it seemed a little too derivative to me. Beck, Kyle and Chloes’ energy were the only thing really saving it for me. C+
Christmas Eve 1944 – Once I figured out what this actually was (and that it wasn’t Wiig reprising her “don’t make me sing” character) I could actually enjoy it for what it was. The song was fun enough to make up for how telegraphed everything else about this sketch felt. I guess I maybe shouldn’t have expected all the other male characters in the sketch to react in shock or confused horror rather than try to follow along with the songs’ genuine storyline as if it were a soap opera. Also, I know a lot of you confused Dua Lipa for Gal Gadot when she first made her cameo (understandable since she and Wiig are costars in the movie Wiigs’ plugging) but the thing about that is that I’ve heard just enough of Dua Lipas’ music that I could tell the song was supposed to be a loving parody of her work so I was expecting her to show up any second. As soon as Bowen and Kristen started their duet, this started to feel like every Deep House Dish sketch ever written beamed back in time to WWII (and for some reason they sent along the Mall Santa Elves sketch from last years’ ScarJo ep, the cut for time Oregon Trail sketch from Brie Larsons’ 2016 episode and the all but forgotten USO sketch from J.Los’ first episode in 2001 for good measure). Frankly, I’m a little surprised that Fran Gillespie and Wil Stephen wrote this one and that Bowen, Mikey and James Anderson had no hand in writing this. It does pretty much scream Andersons’ style (or Bowen trying to emulate him as he was a big influence on him) because it prominently features Bowen singing with Mikey reacting to it. Maybe everyone at the show has gotten used to that being one of Mikey’s go to comedy tricks that everyone feels they can just drag and drop him doing that into any sketch? B+
A Teacher - Well, it was a nice twist that this was an Ego/Andrew two hander instead of another Wiig piece. It was a nicer twist that Ego's character was an actual responsible teacher who was there solely to unravel the premise of the show they were parodying. It was like an totally inverted version of one of Pete's Chad sketches. It also felt like a throwback to one of the "prestige/peak TV" parodies the show would do in seasons 38 and 39 (see "Homeland", "Scandal"). Even though she was the host, I feel like we could've done without Wiigs' whole character entirely. It kinda derailed the momentum this sketch had. B-
Home Alone 2 Lost Ending - Well, the biggest twist of the night might have actually been this not being another "lost screen tests" impression parades OR referencing Trump's cameo in this movie in any way. The second biggest twist may have been Melissa getting more than two lines in a live sketch let alone doing an impression without really doing an impression the way she normally does. Still, this may be the second or third most focus she's had in a sketch she's had all year (which is to be expected since she's sharing the scene with Wiig). I liked this overall. It felt like a throwback to the type of throwback pop culture sketches we'd get in season 35 (during Wiigs' era peak use on the show incidentally) which looking back were the least of the show's problems during that era. I did like Kyle and Mikey's walk on as the wet bandits (man, they really made good use of Kyle's unexpected Joe Pesci impression this year, didn't they?) but I really think their murder scene should've been better executed. Honestly, the biggest twist of the entire show for me might be finding out that John Mulaney WASN'T involved in writing this! He should be in the building regularly being one of Seths’ staff writers after all. I’d like to think this actually WAS an old, unused script of his but I can’t think of who else might have been around a decade or so ago to play the Kevin McAllister part. C+
Update was a pleasant way to close out the year. Josts' "closing time" montage was a fitting way to send off the Trump presidency. Even though SNL has yet to announce when they are returning in 2021, Jost kinda gave it away with his line that this would be the last Update of his presidency. They kinda hit a lull between the McConnell/Vaccine Powerball jokes but they they quickly gained some steam. Nice to see Chris Redd also came back to the show this week (and that he and Kyle Mooney are the only cast members that can make just a string of rapid fire malapropisms entertaining). As much as Kenan has grown on all of us during his SNL tenure, his "Willie" character is still mostly white noise to me. Heidi's character at first seemed less "new" than she seemed like just Baskin Johns and Brie Bacardi dropped into a blender. As it went on, it became apparent that a dash of Kate's Laura Ingraham was thrown in there for good measure. I appreciated what she was going for but I'm not sure who still needs the concept of "Instagram Influencer" explained to them for the purposes of parody. Of course, it wouldn't be a Christmas show Update without Jost and Che doing their typical joke exchange to close it out. This one felt a little lower key than the last one but it still worked and they ended it on the exact right joke. B-
How The Grinch Made December 26th Extremely Awkward - This does function as a nice companion piece to the Cat In The Hat ten-to-one from the first episode Bill Hader hosted early in season 40. Plus, if you're familiar at all with his standup, the material seemed well within Pete's wheelhouse (suddenly I see why this was his first appearance of the whole show). Otherwise, this kinda washed right over me. Mikey and Kyle tried to give Pete an assist with this but it just wasn't working for me. D+
Surprise Sue VI - Well, this was the character that, to me at least, marked Kristen's gradual downhill slide. I liked this one better than the other ones I've seen. It felt a little more tightened up and focused but it was still really just a lot more of the same. Other than that, the best I can say is that it made good use of this season's newer and least used cast members. C-
Now, for my updated rankings for this season…
2. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
3. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
4. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
5. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
6. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
7. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
8. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
9. Bill Burr/
Well, that was a pleasant way for SNL to close out such a hectic year. Now, the show didn’t announce when they would be coming back but Jost seemed to all but confirm that they will be back on January 23rd (the first Saturday AFTER Joe Biden is sworn in as president). I suppose they may be scrambling for a host and musical guest or just waiting to see if New York is going to have to completely shut down again. Whatever happens I hope this cast and crew stays safe and well into the new year whenever we end up getting to see more of the show. Happy Holidays!
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